<HTML>
<HEAD>
<!-- This HTML file has been created by texi2html 1.45
     from schintro.txi on 19 Febuary 1997 -->

<TITLE>An Introduction to Scheme and its Implementation - Comments</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Go to the <A HREF="schintro_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="schintro_22.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="schintro_24.html">next</A>, <A HREF="schintro_143.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="schintro_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
<HR>


<H3><A NAME="SEC24" HREF="schintro_toc.html#SEC24">Comments (Hunk C)</A></H3>


<PRE>
==================================================================
Hunk C starts here:
==================================================================
</PRE>

<P>
[ Should I say this earlier, and use comments in examples earlier? ]

</P>
<P>
You can and should put comments in your Scheme programs.  Start a
comment with a semicolon.  Scheme will ignore any characters after
that on a line.  (This is like the <CODE>//</CODE> comments in C++.)

</P>
<P>
For example, here's a variable definition with a comment after it:

</P>

<PRE>
(define foo 22) ; define foo with an initial value of 22
</PRE>

<P>
Of course, most comments should tell you things that <EM>aren't</EM>
patently obvious from looking at the code.

</P>
<P>
Standard Scheme does not have block comments like C's <CODE>/*</CODE>...<CODE>*/</CODE>
comments.

</P>
<P>
It is common to use two or three semicolons to start a comment, rather
than just one.  This makes the beginning of the comment stand out more
than a single semicolon.  The extra semicolons are ignored, along with
all other characters up to the end of the line.

</P>
<P>
A common style is to use two semicolons for most comments, and three
for comments that take up a whole line, or which describe the contents
of a file.

</P>

<HR>
Go to the <A HREF="schintro_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="schintro_22.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="schintro_24.html">next</A>, <A HREF="schintro_143.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="schintro_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
</BODY>
</HTML>
